Asia stocks turn cautious as reality intrudes in Gulf

Asian share markets were in a more sober mood on ​Thursday as cracks quickly began to appear in the fragile Gulf ceasefire, nudging oil prices back up and reminding ‌investors the inflationary fallout will last for a long time yet. There was scant sign that the Strait of Hormuz was open in any meaningful way, with Iran flexing its control over the vital oil artery and demanding tolls for safe passage. “You have a fifth of the world’s oil supply moving through a ​corridor that is still effectively under the influence of one of the parties to the conflict,” said Nigel Green, ​CEO at deVere Group. “That’s not stability.” “You don’t need a full blockade to move oil markets sharply ⁠higher again,” he added. “Missiles are still being launched in the Gulf, Israel is still engaged on another front, and yet markets ​are behaving as though the region has normalised.” As a result prices for US crude futures edged up 2.8% to $96.99 a barrel, ​while Brent rose 2.1% to $96.74. Japan’s Nikkei dithered either side of flat, after jumping 5.4% the previous session. South Korea dipped 0.4%, following a leap of 6.8%. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan eased 0.3%.